


A Change of Plans

by mrsredboots



Series: The Triplets after School [1]
Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4784204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsredboots/pseuds/mrsredboots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len and Reg decide their future</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Change of Plans

**A Change of Plans**

Len Maynard stopped writing, pushed the cap back on to her pen, and leaned back in a chair with a sigh. There! The essay was finished at last, and although she needed to read through it at some stage before her tutorial tomorrow afternoon, that was more than 24 hours away, and she needed a break. So, what to do this afternoon?

Len was the only Maynard triplet at Oxford. Margot had gone to Edinburgh to read medicine, and Con, who had started at Lady Margaret Hall when Len started at Somerville, had decided after her first term that Oxford's reputation was better than the reality, and left. She had done a shortened secretarial course for the remainder of that academic year, and was now working on a magazine for teenage girls in London. Not that Len had heard from her for several weeks, and then only a postcard. Margot wrote more often, but as the reality of hard work sank in during their second year, even her letters had become shorter and less frequent than they had during their first year, when they were all adjusting to the separation.

Len herself loved Oxford. She enjoyed the work, and she enjoyed the play, too. She was a keen member of the Dramatic society and of the Archaeological Society, and spent a lot of time at the Catholic chaplaincy, not just to attend Mass, but also the mid-week meetings for fellowship and socialising. She had many friends, both men and women, and, now that she was used to being without her sisters, there was only one thing that rather spoilt her happiness. And that was that she missed Reg so badly. Reg, who she had known most of her life, on and off. Reg, to whom she had got engaged just before she left school, nearly two years ago. Reg, who felt like the other part of her – and when she was not with him, as for 24 weeks in the year she could not be, she felt that part of her was missing.

It was a pity, she thought, that it was too cold still to go on the river. She would have liked to have hired a punt and taken herself off to a quiet spot where she could daydream about him to her heart's content. She sighed. Maybe she should have tried to get a room in college this year, instead of living out, since there was usually someone around to chat to when you wanted to be diverted. Right now there was nobody around, as Ricki had gone to commune with the Japanese ceramics in the Ashmolean, as usual, and Ted, also as usual, was out with a boyfriend. Len had thought of going with Ricki, but had decided she really did need to finish her essay first.

So now she was at rather a loose end. There was nothing really on until this evening, when she could either go and paint scenery for the Dramatic Society's forthcoming production of _Much Ado About Nothing,_ or she could go to a meeting at the Chaplaincy. She hadn't really decided which to do, as yet. It was a fairly nice day, but still cold. A cup of tea, she thought, and then she'd wander over to Somerville and see if anybody was around. 

She put the kettle on, and fetched down a mug and the teapot. At school and at home, you drank coffee, but Len had discovered, during her first year, that what she really liked to drink was weak Earl Grey, with no milk or sugar. It was an extravagance, but one she really enjoyed.

The doorbell rang. Len grinned to herself – she always enjoyed company, and this was the perfect time for a friend to pop round. But when she opened the door, she had the shock of her life.

\---oo0oo---

“Reg!” she gasped. “Oh Reg, and I was just missing you so much!” She flung herself into his arms, but then pulled free again quickly. “Is everything all right? Mama? Phil?”

“Oh Len, I'm sorry, my love, I really didn't mean to scare you! No, everything's fine at home; I just needed to talk to you. Are you busy?”

“No, not at all – was just wondering what I was going to do this afternoon. And I've just put the kettle on, you must have heard me! Come into the kitchen. But what have you to say that couldn't wait a couple of weeks until I'm back on the Platz?”

“It's – well, it's a bit difficult. Let's have that cup of tea, and go somewhere we won't be interrupted.”

“I think the others are out for the rest of the day, so we're okay here. Ricki's at the museum, and then she said she was going out to tea with someone at the House, and goodness knows where Ted is – probably with her latest young man, from Jesus, I think.”

“The original Mr Jones of Jesus, then, like in _Gaudy Night?”_

Len giggled. “Just that person! Anyway, here's your tea..... I think there ought to be some biscuits somewhere. Oh yes, here they are.... So now, give. Why are you here? Not that it's not glorious to see you, of course, but....”

Reg stirred his tea, and sighed. “It's all a bit difficult. The thing is – oh dear, the thing is, Len, that – well – I don't think we ought to get married.”

He stopped. Len's heart was bumping in her chest. What on earth was the problem? Why had he stopped wanting to marry her? Had he met someone else?

\---oo0oo---

“But why, Reg?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. “I think you need to tell me why! Have you met someone else you like better?”

“Oh no, darling, never that. You've been the only woman for me since you were about sixteen – and even before that, I wondered if you would be. No, don't cry, my precious. But it wouldn't be fair to you – you see, I don't think I can father children.”

“But Reg – Reg, it's you I want, not children. I mean, yes, I always assumed I'd have children some day, but if we can't.... but how do you know?”

“Well, it started off when we were being a bit silly. You know how Dietrich has been working in the path lab up at the San? He got a new microscope, a really grand one, sent up from Basle, and some of us were messing about with it. It was Jean-Pierre's birthday, and we'd been celebrating.”

Len grinned, knowing how those celebrations were apt to go – she'd been to one or two herself, in the eighteen months since she'd left school. “So _what_ did you get up to?”

“Well, we decided we wanted to look at our sperm, which seemed like a good idea at the time – so some of us went off and provided samples. And that was when we found out that I didn't seem to have any. Sobered us up in a hurry, I can tell you.”

“But – are you sure?” Len remembered from her science classes how easy it was to make a mistake in slide preparation, and imagined it would be a lot easier, if the person preparing it had had a few.

“Oh yes, this was last week – I've had a proper consultation since then, with Doktor Albrecht in Zürich, and I'm afraid it's definite. Albrecht thinks it might have been when I had mumps, apparently that can do it, or it might just be one of those things. But really, it means I have nothing to offer you.”

“But Reg, it's _you_ I want. I mean, children are always a maybe – it might have been that I couldn't have them, and we wouldn't have found that out until they didn't happen, if you see what I mean. And if you hadn't found out, we wouldn't have known....

“Besides which, don't forget I _know_ about babies; we had so many at home. I'd far rather teach older kids. And if we really felt we couldn't bear it, we could always see if we could adopt.”

“Oh Len, I – well, what can I say?” And he took her into his arms, and for a while, talking was the last thing on either of their minds.

Finally, they broke apart, flushed and panting. “So no more nonsense, huh?” said Len.

“No Miss, sorry Miss,” said Reg, grinning down at her.

\---oo0oo---

A couple of hours later, Reg and Len were curled up together on the sofa in the sitting-room. They had been out for a walk and, regretfully, decided that it really was still too cold to go on the river.

“So what are your plans?” asked Len. “How long are you staying? You can sleep on the sofa here, people do – or even in my room if you like. Ted and Ricki won't mind.”

Reg raised his eyebrows at her! “Well, if you're sure they won't.... but let's think about that one later. As for my immediate plans, well, I wanted to talk to you first. And now I have, and, miraculously, you still want to marry me –“ and again, they stopped talking.

“You see, had you sent me away, as I was so afraid you would,” he continued a few minutes later, “I was planning to go from here to London and try to arrange to get on a GP training course at one of the big teaching hospitals there, then I would have flown home and given my notice in to your father.”

“Why a GP course?” asked Len.

“Well, there doesn't seem to be much future in TB work these days,” explained Reg. “And, really, I've always wanted to be a GP. But of course we'll stay on the Platz now.”

Len looked at him. “Do we have to?” she asked. “I mean, if you would rather be a GP and work somewhere else, that's fine with me. I don't really want to live up there!”

“Len, are you sure? I mean, it's your home, and you could teach at the school.”

“Which is exactly what I _don't_ want to do! Never have wanted to. And what else is there to do up there? I've always wanted to teach, but not at the school – too many people who know me, too much tradition. And wouldn't it be awful with everybody looking at me and wondering why I wasn't starting a baby, and _asking_ things. Plus, much as I love Mama and Papa, I really don't want to live next door to them!”

“Oh my dear, I hadn't realised you felt like that! I wouldn't ever have left the Platz if you had wanted to stay there – but I agree, we'd be better making our life away from it. It is rather claustrophobic as a society. All the same, don't ever think I don't know what I owe to your father, and I'm glad I was able to repay just a little of that by working for him these past five years.”

“He knows that, Reg, and I know that he is very, very glad he helped you. He told me that last Long Vac, when you came to the Tiernsee with us.”

“So where do you want to teach? The Welsh branch of the Chalet School?”

“I don't know, I haven't really thought. Ages ago, before we were engaged, when I was still at school, I used to daydream about teaching in a council school somewhere, to help other girls who hadn't had the advantages that I've had. But that might have been rather arrogant on my part, though!”

“Not arrogant, I don't think. But if you plan to teach modern languages, I rather think a grammar school or a high school might be more inclined to have an opening than a secondary modern would!”

“True. But there are grammar schools everywhere, not just in the well-off areas. Or were you thinking of being a GP in a wealthy suburb somewhere, with a large private practice? No, I thought not!” as Reg made a face.

“You know me better than that! But are you absolutely sure you don't want to stay on the Platz. I mean, it's no real hardship to me to stay – I've been very happy there, as you know.”

“Well, so have I,” agreed Len. “But really, if you don't mind leaving – well, I was only going back there to be with you. That was the one bit of being married to you that I _wasn't_ looking forward to, living on the Platz with the family and the school and the San and so on. All those people who've known me since I was a baby, and who still treat me as though I were one, most of the time.”

“Oh darling, why didn't you _say?”_

“I think I would have, sooner or later, but I really thought you were installed there for the duration.”

“Not a bit of it. In fact, we're getting so few TB cases these days that I'm beginning to feel a bit like a spare part. I'd have had to retrain if we _had_ stayed, anyway.”

“So does that mean we'll actually be in the same country next year?” asked Len, her face brightening.

“Better than that; if I can wangle it, we'll be in the same city! Oxford offers the best course, and it was the one I really wanted to take. I'll ring them up tomorrow and arrange an interview, but I'm pretty sure I'll get on to it.”

“Oh, _marvellous!”_ said Len.

 

\---oo0oo---

Twenty-four hours later, Len came out of her tutor's house to find Reg waiting for her. “And?” she asked, linking her arm through his.

“Sorted!” said Reg, with a huge smile. “They'll take me on their course which starts in September.”

“So we'll be able to be together next year? Oh, that really is marvellous!”

“Isn't it, just! Although I imagine we'll both be pretty busy, with it being your final year, and this course is pretty intensive, I gather.”

“Still, I'll see more of you than I do now! And, of course – “she paused. “No, too mad.”

“What, then?”

“No, it's too impossible. But all the same – supposing we got married this summer, instead of next?”

“Now, that seems to be the best idea you've had in a mighty long time! So why is it impossible?”

“Well, I'm not too sure what College would say, for a start.”

“Need they know? I mean, you aren't _required_ to live in Hall next year, are you? And if you just called yourself Maynard while you were at college.....”

“No, but they do like to know where we are living, and who with! They mightn't exactly like the idea of my living with you, if they didn't know we were married.”

“Again, do we need to tell them? I don't mean deceive them, or lie to them – just not tell them! If you went on living in the same place, and maybe Ted and Ricki would, too.... you just wouldn't tell them I was there, too! There is room, after all.”

Len laughed. “You know, that might just work.... I know both of them would quite like to stay on in the house, it does suit us. Ted likes being free to come and go as she pleases, and Ricki is so totally engrossed in her studies she won't mind where she lives. She's going to get a First, you know – nobody has the slightest doubt of that.”

“As long as they wouldn't mind.”

“I don't think they will. We'll have to put it to them, of course, and swear them to secrecy. Except....” Len stopped both walking and talking for a moment.

“What, my love?”

“Well, if we were to be married this summer, it doesn't give Mamma very long to get things organised, and I know she really wants to push the boat out, as I'm the first in the family.”

“She'll be fine, I expect. Of course, we could elope!”

“Yeah, that would probably be the best thing.... I don't really want to be doing with all the nonsense and having all my sisters be bridesmaids, and all the school forming a guard of honour or something.”

“Len, are you serious?”

“Well, half – I don't really want as big a wedding as I know Mamma would like me to have. But I don't think it could happen – I won't, after all, be 21 until November, and the days of being able to be married over the blacksmith's forge in Gretna Green are long gone!”

Reg laughed. “Well, that would be going a bit far. You know what might be an idea, and that's to talk to your father. Let's not decide anything absolutely now, except maybe to see whether Ted and Ricki would be okay with the idea in principle. Then we'll talk to your father over the vac – I'll have to tell him our plans anyway, as I'll need to give him at least three months' notice to quit – and see what he suggests about getting married.”

“Now, that sounds like a very good idea. He'll be able to talk Mamma around, I suspect. Which reminds me, what did you say to him about coming to England. Did you tell him about not being able to father children?”

“No, I didn't, and nor do I plan to. It isn't really anything to do with him, after all. I just told him that I wanted to take the normal long weekend we get every quarter, and would he mind if I had an extra 24 hours. He's very good about that sort of thing as long as you don't overdo it. And if he suspected I was coming to England to see you, he didn't let on.”

“All the same, it's possible we will need to tell him, since he'll doubtless raise that particular objection to our getting married before I graduate. What if, and all that.”

“Yes, so we might. All the same, he will, I think, keep our confidence. I can bear his knowing, but I really don't want my private affairs gossiped about all over the Gornetz Platz.”

“I should think not, indeed. Me neither. Mamma wouldn't gossip, of course, but she would _mind_ for me, and that would be awful, too. I think I'd rather she didn't know until it becomes obvious. She so loves having a long family I don't think it occurs to her that not everybody else does!”

“Then we'll talk to Ricki and Ted first, before the end of the weekend, and to your Papa when you come home for the Vac. Which isn't long now!”

“No, only two weeks.”

“Are your sisters coming home?”

“I don't think so. Margot will probably want to spend Easter with the nuns, like she did last year; it's such a long journey for her from Edinburgh, and she doesn't get quite such long vacs as I do. And I don't suppose Con will be able to get away now she's working. She doesn't earn enough to fly out, and if she came by train, she'd just about arrive in time to turn round and go back to London again!”

“We'll have to fly them out for our wedding. No matter how small it is, I'm sure you'd want them both there!”

“Oh, of course I do! They are my triplets, after all, and no matter how much we're growing apart now, we'd still need and want each other there for that sort of occasion. I'm sure Margot will want me there if and when she makes her vows – and I shall want to be there.”

\---oo0oo---

Three weeks later, Len was in Jack's office at the San, She and Reg had decided that this would be the best place to tackle him since Freudesheim, in the school holidays, was always busy and noisy, and it was hard to rely on an uninterrupted space with either parent when the boys were home. After the peace of the little house she had shared with Ricki and Ted for the past eight weeks, Len found it both bewildering and, at the same time, reassuringly familiar.

Matron Graves came in with coffee for three. “Your father and Reg will be with you in a minute, Len,” she said. “They are with their last patient for now, and asked me to bring in the coffee, they'll be here to drink it while it's still hot.”

“Thanks, Matron,” said Len. “Coffee in England is vile; I almost never drink it there. It makes a change to have it here. And these biscuits are luscious!”

They chatted for a few moments about Oxford, a city Matron Graves had known as a young woman, and, as promised, the two men arrived within a very few minutes. Matron smiled and excused herself, leaving the three of them together.

“So why do I think,” asked Jack, “that I am not going to like what you two are about to tell me?”

“I don't know,” teased Len. “Perhaps you're psychic?”

“Psychic or not,” said her father, “I'd really like to know the worst, so give!”

Len and Reg looked at each other, and then, both in the same breath went, “You first!” and then laughed.

“Oh, go on,” said Reg. “Ladies first.”

“No, no,” replied Len, “Age before beauty!”

Jack cleared his throat meaningfully. “We don't actually have a long coffee-break, so shall we get on with it?”

Reg looked at Len again, and then with a sigh produced an envelope from his pocket. “First of all, Jack, I'm afraid this is my formal notice to quit. I shall be leaving at the beginning of July.”

“Oh dear,” said Jack, “That was one of the things I was afraid of. So tell me, firstly why, and secondly what your plans are instead.”

Reg explained, helped out by Len from time to time. Jack sucked his teeth, but accepted it, and ended by expressing his approval of the Oxford course Reg had enrolled on. “Ken Francis, who runs the course, is an old friend of mine. I know he'll be a good tutor and you should do well under him.

“Okay, so that's one bit of bad news; what's the other?” He turned to smile at his eldest daughter.

“Basically, we'd like to bring our wedding forward a year, and be married this July instead of next, and have it very quietly,” said Len, rather in a rush.

“Hmm.” Jack raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you can wait until July?”

“Oh yes,” said Len, and then suddenly went scarlet as she realised what her father meant. “Oh, no, Papa, it's not that – I haven't started a baby, do credit me with a _little_ sense.”

“Then why the big rush? I certainly don't mind if you have a small wedding, although you'll have to settle that one with your mother, but why can't you wait?”

“We could, if we had to,” said Reg, “but when we are in the same city it seems pointless to live apart. And neither of us particularly wants to live in sin, so we'd rather be married.”

Eventually, as they had feared, they did have to explain about Reg's being sterile. Jack sympathised and promised to keep that information confidential. “Although how you are going to explain to your mother without telling her, I don't know.”

“I don't want to tell her unless we have to,” said Len. “She would mind for me, and I don't mind for myself. And if I find I do mind, later on, I expect we can adopt. Meanwhile, I'd rather teach. Maybe I'll be like Mr Chips and have hundreds and hundreds of children, although perhaps not all of them boys!”

Jack grinned. “Well, I don't know about that, but so far as I'm concerned, I'll give my consent for you to be married this July. If I don't, I expect you'd just go and live in sin until November, anyway – and quiet wedding or not, I'd rather give you away than have you tell me you got married without us!”

 

\---oo0oo---

Joey Maynard looked at her eldest daughter.

“But Len,” she said, “aren't you being a little selfish here? It seems to me that the only reason you want to get married a year early is so that you and Reg can be together. It seems rather a hole-in-corner way to go about things – you know your college won't approve, so you want to keep it quiet. Wouldn't you be better to wait until you've graduated, and be married next July, as you planned?”

“Well, yes, Mama, we probably would. But it seems so silly to be in the same town and not be married; it was one thing to be engaged for nearly four years when I was in Oxford and he was here, but now that we're going to be together.”

“All the same, you should be focussing on your studies and getting your degree, not learning how to be married, and looking after a husband. Plenty of time for married life later on – you will have all your lives together, what's another year?”

Len sighed. This was what she had been dreading – she knew that her mother would argue, most reasonably, and say all the wise, sensible things that she, Len, had been thinking to herself ever since she and Reg had first started planning. But, for once, she wasn't going to allow herself to be talked out of what she wanted.

“I'm sorry you don't approve, Mama,” she said, looking steadily at her mother. “But this is what Reg wants, as well as me, and I'm sure you'll agree that I need to start putting his wishes before yours, if our marriage is to be as successful as yours and Papa's has been.”

“But, Len -” Joey said, but Len continued speaking, calmly, not raising her voice:

“Papa has given his consent for us to be married before I'm 21, so I do hope you'll see your way clear to agreeing with him. I should hate it if we were estranged – Reg and I are hoping to come here often for our holidays, to see everybody.”

“Oh, Len – no – whatever happens, no matter how much I disagree with you on things – and you're quite right, you do need to start to live your own life, no matter how much I might want to keep you my baby – but no matter what, you'll always be my beloved daughter, you'll always have a home here, I hope, and you'll always be welcome.”

Len hugged her mother. “I love you, too, Mama!”

Joey laughed. “Which doesn't mean, of course, that I won't go on trying to talk you out of getting married so soon. Or, for that matter, out of not coming back here to teach, and for Reg to go on working at the San. It will be horrible having you so far away.”

“Probably no further than I am now,” said Len.

“No, but at least now you come home every eight weeks. And I know Con and Margot can't do that – and how I miss them, how we all miss them, when they are away.”

“We'll all be together for the wedding, though,” said Len.

“That's about the one thing that reconciles me to it,” laughed Joey.

\---oo0oo---

Three months later, Len stood outside the Chapel of the Snows, waiting for her bridesmaids, Con and Margot, to finish straightening her wedding-dress and adjusting her veil. Jack, in morning dress, waited for her to take his arm.

Reg waited for her at the chancel steps, with one of the younger doctors standing beside him as his best man. Frank and Phoebe Peters sat behind him, with Lucy and their elderly maid, Debby. Lucy was fidgeting, trying to attract Felicity Maynard's attention on the other side of the chapel, where she sat with the rest of the Maynard family, including Anna and Rösli. The only non-family guest was Ricki Fry, who had been invited, along with Ted, on the grounds that they were going to be sharing the house next year, so they must be in at the start of things. Ted, however, had already had plans for the summer, and hadn't been able to come.

Father Stephens came to the door of the chapel, and, at his nod, the organist struck up the Wedding March. Len, on her father's arm, walked slowly up the aisle towards Reg.

\---oo0oo---

Eleven months later, her family gathered once again, this time, to see her receive her degree from the Chancellor of Oxford University.

“You know,” said Jo, after the long ceremony was over, “We really thought you were misguided, getting married so early. And what if the college had found out? But you got away with it – and I wonder whether you would have done so well without Reg? A First – oh my dear, we are so proud of you!”

“Thank you, Mama! I'm rather proud of myself, if the truth be known! And Reg has done so well, too. And now we're going to have a lovely long holiday before we start our new life in Birmingham in September.”

And they did.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written some ten years ago now, one of the first fics I ever wrote.


End file.
